▶ 0:05:29Chair Grassley: I have been asked to make short statements. One is white house, when is coon s, and one is britt. We have 20 nominations listed. We will vote on five of them.
▶ 0:05:52Chair Grassley: Jennifer mascott, edmund lacour, harold mooty, and david courcel le. I will support all these nominees. We will go over the remaining nominees listed on our agenda for later consideration.
▶ 0:06:16Chair Grassley: Before turning to today's business, I'd like to discuss the reason for the outrage that has been expressed by people that are in office and out of office. Particularly because of what my democratic colleagues of said in the indictment of fbi director james comey.
▶ 0:06:41Chair Grassley: The indictment returned by the grand jury contains serious charges if you consider testifying before congress is an important thing for people to do honestly. At the time of his alleged conduct my colleagues in knighthead an investigation. If the facts and evidence show he lied to the congress and obstructed investigative work we are doing, he ought to be held accountable.
▶ 0:07:12Chair Grassley: The rule of law requires truthfulness before congress. This body's constitutional oversight role demanded. Instead of acknowledging this fact and allowing the legal process to play out as I saw over the weekend on television, some of my colleagues are warning us about the dangers of politicized justice. That is perfectly right for them to make that warning to us.
▶ 0:07:48Chair Grassley: I think it is reasonable for us to look at the history of the last decade. I have long warned against political investigations and prosecutions and dual standards of justice.
▶ 0:08:02Chair Grassley: As one example, in 2023, I said, quoting myself, attorney general carlin signed off on prosecuting trump for conduct similar to what joe biden and hillary clinton engaged in. Two standards of justice of this country. Will turn our republic upside down.
▶ 0:08:32Chair Grassley: That is the end of my quote. During the fbi's clinton email scam investigation, the fbi agreed to destroy records and laptops of clinton's associates. The fbi limited the scope of review and provided immunity agreements.
▶ 0:08:55Chair Grassley: Call caomey drafted an exaggeration statement long before the inter- -- the fbi interviewed her and six other witnesses. , and then president obama publicly undermined investigation before it was completed by saying, "this is not a situation in which america's national security was in danger." you have heard about reducing
▶ 0:09:26Chair Grassley: The clinton annex. It showed that comey's fbi had information related to conduct, "a thorough and complete investigation." they did not review it. That is the opposite of how the fbi treated trump.
▶ 0:09:54Chair Grassley: The obama administration and comey's fbi opened crossfire hurricane on candidate trump and falsely accused him of russian collusion. The fbi lied to the fisa court. Now declassified durham annex, which got declassified, said the campaign planned to falsely tie trump to russia.
▶ 0:10:25Chair Grassley: The fbi helped them try to do it. Where was my democratic colleagues and their outcry when the biden administration weaponized the justice department to investigate the 92 political groups to regard to crossed? -- during our to crossed? -- our artic frost?
▶ 0:10:57Chair Grassley: There has been no outcry despite the political infection. That is true even at state level cases brought against trump. In one of the partisan lawsuits launched against president trump a justice of the new york supreme court described the goal as, "the derailment of president trump's political career and the destruction of his real estate business."
▶ 0:11:27Chair Grassley: That is not the commentary of a media personality. That is what a sitting justice wrote in his concurrence. Democrats chaired the political rest and prosecution of president trump, his advisors, his friends, his lawyers and even his valet. House democrats impeached president trump not once but twice.
▶ 0:12:00Chair Grassley: Democrats and their allies in the politicized justice system raided president trump's house, publicly released his tax returns, fined his companies and stripped his business licenses. Democrats even try to remove president trump from the ballot in 2024 more than -- in more than one state. Imagine that. Depriving the american people from electing the candidate of their choice.
▶ 0:12:31Chair Grassley: A candidate ultimately elected by an overwhelming margin. They have engaged in inflammatory rhetoric about president trump and his supporters, calling them fascists, authoritarians, racists and worse. That is after assassination attempts.
▶ 0:12:54Chair Grassley: I am sure in the coming days my colleagues will wax poetic about political prosecutions and trump's revenge. That is what I heard on television over the weekend. For all their complaining they should remember where this started. They should remember the warnings from my side of the aisle. They should remember that hypocrisy is not a way to regain the moral high ground.
▶ 0:13:27Chair Grassley: Before turning to the nominations, I would like to briefly comment on yesterday's hearing before this committee. Despite criticism of partisanship, we heard from victims about the devastating impact of soft on crime policies. For those who saw the hearing as partisan, they did not read extremely partisan letter democrats sent to me attacking the president's successful anti-crime policies. Mrs.
▶ 0:13:57Chair Grassley: Cook was one of those victims. Her grandson was murdered in D.C. Mrs. cook read a victim impact statement at the hearing of her grandson's killer. Afterwards, the judge looked at her grandson's killer and commented how he would be tortured all day listening to the headache's actions caused. -- his actions called. That has no place in the judiciary.
▶ 0:14:27Chair Grassley: I have high hopes that nominees under consideration today will never dismiss a victim's pain and their courtrooms. I'm grateful to Mrs. cook for her testimony and a president trump or taking stories like Mrs. cook's seriously after leaders failed her. Violent crime must be met with strong response. If anything, yesterday's hearing showed that. Senator durbin.
▶ 0:14:56Sen. Durbin: I have been ordered to serve in this judiciary committee for more than 20 years. We have our differences. Serious differences. You can hear the manifest and debate on the floor and the committee and specific legislation. I've always been heartened by the fact that we came to certain aspects of law enforcement and law and order and crime and we find common ground. Democrats and republicans agree.
▶ 0:15:27Sen. Durbin: It is a tradition in police week for us to reduce a package of bills to support the police and do it in a responsible way. I have always been impressed by the fact that you put politics aside for that purpose. The hearing yesterday I felt was too partisan. I said as much before the committee yesterday. I hope we can get back to this long-standing tradition of trying to find bipartisan basis to fight violent crime.
▶ 0:15:54Sen. Durbin: I do not accept the premise that if you have a democratic mayor or democratic governor you will be "soft on crime." I don't believe there is evidence to support that. There are certainly red counties and states with crime statistics which are appalling as well as blue states. I hope we can get back to working together. If we are going to have a discussion on that issue let's make sure we tell the whole story.
▶ 0:16:20Sen. Durbin: President trump's budget has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in public safety funding for state and local law enforcement. That is not a political statement. That is a fact. President trump has also diverted thousands of fbi, dea, atf agents from their critical missions to carry out the president's mass deportation agenda.
▶ 0:16:45Sen. Durbin: Not surprisingly, as brought up yesterday, federal drug prosecutions this year under the trump administration have dropped to the lowest levels in decades. The experts who went after the conspirators and designers of the narcotics network are real experts and it takes real effort to find the evidence to convict. They are now being diverted into the mass deportation.
▶ 0:17:13Sen. Durbin: How are we doing on mass deportation? 70% of the people we detained under the trump mass deportation banner have no criminal record. No criminal record. Rapists, murderers, terrorists, criminally insane, no criminal record. President trump granted full and unconditional apartments to nearly 1600 january 6 insurrectionists, including more than 600 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
▶ 0:17:45Sen. Durbin: Who has respect for our law enforcement? The one who initiated this unconditional pardon? Many of these pardoned rioters have been convicted of other offenses since they were given a pardon. Jared wise was filmed on january 6 encouraging his fellow rioters to attack metropolitan police officers and "kill them." his words. Mr. wise now has a new job. Guess what he's doing?
▶ 0:18:18Sen. Durbin: Senior advisor at the department of justice. Nothing says tough on crime quite like hiring someone who participated in the assault on law enforcement officers as a leader of america's highest law enforcement agency. Consider taking concrete action to improve public safety, president trump has weaponized federal law enforcement to seek vengeance against his perceived political enemies. Acting U.S. attorney for this instant district of virginia.
▶ 0:18:47Sen. Durbin: Ciber, a republican appointed by president trump, did not believe there was sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against new york attorney general letitia james or former fbi director james comey. What was the reward for this trump nominee? He was forced to resign and president trump installed his former personal secretary -- personal attorney, someone with no prosecutorial experience, to indicted james comey despite the weakness of the case.
▶ 0:19:16Sen. Durbin: If you want a little exercise in how you pursue these matters, take a look at the monday new york times. There's a lengthy article trying to expand the circumstances that led to the indictment of james comey. I read it twice. I'm still trying to understand the model of information of facts presented. It is no wonder a U.S. attorney would say I cannot find evidence to convict.
▶ 0:19:44Sen. Durbin: Since january 20, 2017, president trump is shown time and again he believes the federal government exist in the service of himself and his political goals. When he lost the 2020 election, president trump try to use the might of the department of justice to overturn the election results. When he failed at that, he turned to a mob loose on the capitol. Now he will not suffer anyone who tends to reign in his abuses. In july, he fired the acting U.S.
▶ 0:20:13Sen. Durbin: Attorney for the eastern district of california simply because they U.S. attorney advised U.S. border patrol to comply with the federal court order. When I started asking the question of judicial nominees, will you comply with the court order, so members of this committee on the other side of the table said of course you would comply. It is in doubt and sadly in doubt in some cases now. We have heard from whistleblowers at a senior trump doj appointee advised another agency to actually violate the court order.
▶ 0:20:45Sen. Durbin: Instead of pursuing effective crime prevention, president trump plays strong men on tv and has deployed troops to american city and threatened to send more. Yesterday, he and secretary hegseth summoned all the major career military officers of the united states from around the world to a political pep rally at quantico where he said he wanted to use american cities as "training grounds for the military." think of that for a moment.
▶ 0:21:14Sen. Durbin: Using american military to you use our cities as training grounds for the military. He said we are going into chicago very soon. I don't know if you saw the videos that portrayed what these officials are doing with the department of homeland security, but marching down michigan avenue in full combat dress with long rifles is an embarrassment to me. That is not what america should be all about.
▶ 0:21:43Sen. Durbin: This is dangerous and un-american. It should be opposed by every member. If it happened in your state or your hometown, you would think twice about looking the other way. It is time for us to get together in a bipartisan basis and support the rule of law and law enforcement. The american people deserve law enforcement that serves them and not weaponized to serve the whims of the political agenda. I yield.
▶ 0:22:06Chair Grassley: Before I: senator whitehouse, I'm frustrated you are with the fact that these bipartisan police bills that you have talked about are not getting past. I think if you check out you will find out there are problems on your side of the all bringing them up and I have even heard some members on this committee express that on the floor the united states senate.
▶ 0:22:35Chair Grassley: Maybe you and I can work together to see what we can do to break that. Senator whitehouse.
▶ 0:22:39Sen. Whitehouse: Thank you, chairman. My comments today about fbi chiefs testifying honestly and not lying to congress are particularly relevant in the light of your opening statement.
▶ 0:23:01Sen. Whitehouse: Let me start with the basic fact behind all of this that the current fbi director played the fifth -- pled the fifth in the matter where he ended up providing grand jury testimony.
▶ 0:23:22Sen. Whitehouse: We have never had an fbi director come through this committee who had fled the fifth before -- pled the fifth before. To do it honestly you have to have a good faith belief that your testimony will subject you to criminal liability, which meant if patel was honest, he had a good faith belief that his testimony was subject him --
▶ 0:23:53Sen. Whitehouse: Would subject him to criminal liability. As that went forward he ended up getting immunity from the government in order to testify. If this were a court, a civil court, a judge would allow an adverse inference to be drawn against the witness who had asserted the fifth.
▶ 0:24:18Sen. Whitehouse: In patel's proceedings, we were never allowed to get to the bottom of the grand jury testimony. Why he played the fifth, what he said, all of that was papered over as he went through this committee to confirmation. For obvious reasons I pressed that question, as you would if the shoe were on the other foot.
▶ 0:24:48Sen. Whitehouse: I believe that patel lied to us and the committee. He said that he could not share his grand jury testimony. "there is a court order on that case," he said. "I can't go into court orders granted by the D.C.
▶ 0:25:13Sen. Whitehouse: District chief judge." when I pressed him further he challenged me saying, "you want me to violate a court order?" he then went on to say to senator booker grand jury testimony has been sealed by the department of justice and I'm not allowed to discuss it here. As it turns out, none of that was true. All of that was false. We know that because the D.C.
▶ 0:25:41Sen. Whitehouse: District chief judge who he mentioned in his false statement to this committee said, and I'm quoting the judge, federal rule of criminal procedure allows witnesses like patel today divulge the contents -- content of the testimony, meaning nothing was preventing him from doing so before the committee.
▶ 0:26:10Sen. Whitehouse: It sure looks like he lied about that. In his recent testimony, I asked again. Now he offered the committee a new and different ally, -- different lie that he had released the transcript already. He said "I would love for my grand jury testimony to be released. I want it made public.
▶ 0:26:36Sen. Whitehouse: " I one of the transcript released and I will get it to you, sir." to me. "I will get you the transcript." he he said to me, "the grand jury testimony has been released." he said the transcript has been released publicly. He told senator booker I don't have the grand jury transcript and that is why I released it.
▶ 0:27:11Sen. Whitehouse: As it turns out, no transcript was released. He was making up that lie probably to get away from having to answer our questions. Now we have an fbi director who first light in committee about a nonexistent court order and had that lie exploded by the actual judge who he claimed had him under court order, then lighting committee -- lied in committee about releasing a transcript that has not been released.
▶ 0:27:38Sen. Whitehouse: I think on that state of facts we are entitled to get the transcript he says he wants us to have but he says he released publicly and the judge has confirmed is not under any court order of protection. Mr. chairman, I look forward to working with you.
▶ 0:27:56Sen. Whitehouse: You have a strong interest in fbi chiefs testifying honestly in this committee and not lying to congress, to try to get to the bottom of what is going on with two frequent and obviously provable lies. I don't think it is asking too much to ask the committee support to asked director patel to do what he says he has already done, which is to release the grand jury transcript of his testimony provided to us.
▶ 0:28:27Sen. Whitehouse: Thank you.
▶ 0:28:30Chair Grassley: [inaudible] >> thank you, chairman. Thank you to my colleagues. I want to speak to the first vote on our agenda today for jennifer mascott, the circuit including my home state of delaware. Thank you for giving me a chance to speak to this before we proceed to a vote.
▶ 0:29:00Chair Grassley: I appreciate professor mascott's time as a public servant at the doj. Her service in the white house counsel's office and desire to keep serving our country and the effort she has made to get to members of the delaware bench and bar. I don't think her continued service should be in the delaware bay seat of the third circuit given she's never lived in delaware, not a member of the delaware bar does not attend -- intend to join, not practiced in any state or federal court.
▶ 0:29:31Chair Grassley: She confirmed her responses her soul connection to delaware is a beach house and she has never filed a brief or presented in oral argument in any delaware court. I'm worried she's not interested in delaware and frankly she just wanted to be nominated to any open seat. She never sought the position of the third circuit but expressed an interest in serving in the federal judiciary.
▶ 0:29:57Chair Grassley: She was not admitted to practice in the third circuit until may, just days after the white house first mention her name. There are many talented conservative members of the delaware bar, including long time nevers that senator rochester and I personally interviewed and recommended who we thought were in keeping with their priorities. Yet professor mascott has been nominated. For our legal committee delaware is a special place in a special bar.
▶ 0:30:26Chair Grassley: This nomination is normal shattering. Chairman grassley, and raised -- when it raised concerns you responded with a list of nominees you said were similarly disconnected from the states to which they had been nominated to serve on the circuit court seat. I can review all seven of these. Let me quickly reference three. Robert katzman, born and raised in new york in both new york senator supported him.
▶ 0:30:54Chair Grassley: J bybee, grew up in nevada, taught at unlv law school, member of the nevada bar, both nevada senator supported his nomination. Allison rushing, born and raised in north carolina, to college and law school in north carolina, and it is to listen her nomination. There is more. I will cut to the chase. Miss mascott never taught or practiced in delaware and is not a member of the bar and neither delivered senator supports her nomination.
▶ 0:31:26Chair Grassley: In a blue slip world I realize state senators did not matter. I guess now home state and ties to the state don't matter either. My mother has a beach home in florida. I have visited florida couple of times. I suppose I'm not qualified to be nominated for the florida seat on the 11th circuit.
▶ 0:31:45Chair Grassley: More importantly, in addition to her nonexistent relationship to my home state is the lack of legal experience, practical expense and criminal law, bankruptcy, torts, ip, corporate. She should not be grading the work of bankruptcy court judges, all of them have substantially more corporate legal experience than she does. Last, her views I find outside the mainstream, especially on expanding the scope of presidential power.
▶ 0:32:14Chair Grassley: I'm concerned by her refusal to recuse on a few key issues. Professor comey professor co mascott appears on cable tv as an advocate and she said the shipping port decision should be struck down. But would not commit to recusing herself from cases applying that precedent. He has advised the white house on whether president trump can refuse to spend money congress has appropriated but would not commit to recusing from cases related to that issue.
▶ 0:32:44Chair Grassley: Currently serves as senior counsel in the white house counsel's office but would not commit to recusing from cases that challenge the president's executive orders. How can we trust her to decide cases fairly when she served as the lawyer or the advocate representing one position or party? The people of the third circuit and delaware believe -- I believe deserve better.
▶ 0:33:04Chair Grassley: No disrespect for professor who is a lovely human being and has had lots of people reach out about her character and integrity, but her lack of ties to delaware and her practice experience or lack thereof in her positions in her confirmation hearing lead me to conclude I should vote against her confirmation. I urge my colleagues to do the same. Thank you.
▶ 0:33:27Chair Grassley: Before I: senator britt, I have to put in the record 10 letters of support for professor mascott, 48 doj officials, 53 law scholars, constitutional and administrative law, 30 members of the george washington law school faculty, two former chairman of the administrative conference of the united states, the assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel,
▶ 0:33:58Chair Grassley: The dean of school leah law school, the dean of catholic university law school, executive director of c. Boyden gray center, the separation of powers institute and 35 community leaders and neighbors. Without objection, these will be inserted into the record.
▶ 0:34:22Sen. Britt: I wanted to briefly talk about the three nominees to fill the vacancies in alabama. Senator tuberville and I were pleased to nominate hal mooty, bill lewis and eddie lacour to fill the vacancies and we are grateful to president trump for putting outstanding nominees forward for the bench in our state.
▶ 0:34:51Sen. Britt: I have the utmost confidence in their experience, their qualifications, their legal acumen, their integrity and their commitment to faithfully interpret and apply the constitution and the laws that congress has passed. I believe state and its citizens well on the federal bench. I urge my colleagues to support their nominations. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:35:13Chair Grassley: [inaudible] >> thank you very much, Mr. chairman. Former sipping his robert jackson, who later became the chief prosecutor at nuremberg gave an address in 1940 when he was attorney general. It was titled, "federal prosecutor.
▶ 0:35:33Chair Grassley: " while the prosecutor at his best is one of the most magnificent forces in society when he ask from malice he is one of the worst. Unfortunately president trump, driven by clear malice, ordered the prosecution of james comey.
▶ 0:35:57Chair Grassley: A prosecution that was rejected by a career republican prosecutor who had looked at the facts and looked at the evidence for months. In a country devoted to the rule of law it is simply unconscionable for the president to direct the justice department to engage in political prosecutions against the recommendations of a career prosecutor.
▶ 0:36:23Chair Grassley: Maybe you think this is small, maybe you know that he will win this case as he said himself. Timmy is much deeper than that. Donald trump posted on social media and the whole world saw his instructions to the attorney general to go after his perceived political enemies. Including the former director of the fbi, who by the way was a republican appointed U.S.
▶ 0:36:54Chair Grassley: Attorney. Served a number of positions under republicans. With my law school classmate, so I know little bit about his politics.
▶ 0:37:07Chair Grassley: He ordered the justice department to go after the sitting attorney general in the state of new york, and he even ordered the entire justice department to go after a member of this committee. If that is not chilling to my colleagues and they don't care about this, I don't even know what to say anymore. Pam bondi came before this committee and I asked her questions about this.
▶ 0:37:38Chair Grassley: She said to me, and these are her words, "politics will not play a part." in our decisions." so when donald trump could not find someone in the justice department to bring the charges against comey, he fired, pushed out eric ce out eric cseeberg, the prosecutor recommended by the republican governor of the state of virginia.
▶ 0:38:11Chair Grassley: He installed a white house aide to overrule career prosecutors. He is pressuring the about who to prosecute rather than letting the career prosecutors make decisions about the facts and the laws. That is not justice. As former trump house attorney ty cobb said, we have a president for the first time in history ordering his ag to indict his enemies. The ag, instead of the independent for she is supposed to be is saying yes sir. How can I get that done?
▶ 0:38:47Chair Grassley: Andrew mccarthy, former federal prosecutor and conservative commentator also said that this was a vindictive indictment, incomprehensible in the mess -- and a mass. I was a prosecutor and people would call, don't go after that kid. Often times the kids would be 35 years old. Not once did I ever go to the career prosecutor and say get rid of that case. Don't do that. Oh, have less of a sentence.
▶ 0:39:17Chair Grassley: When you cross that line, because you have had that kind of political pressure put on you, you cannot go back. You can't go back. You took an oath to represent the government, the people, whether it is a state or the country and not to represent in this case the president. This is not happening in a vacuum.
▶ 0:39:44Chair Grassley: At the same time the president directs investigations and prosecutions of his perceived enemies he gives pardons to and rewards his friends. The administration reportedly shut down an investigation into border czar tom homan for excepting a $50,000 cash bribe. The president pardoned insurrectionist to assaulted police officers in this very building.
▶ 0:40:10Chair Grassley: He pressured prosecutors to dismiss a corruption case against eric adams. It was hayden's it was hayden' scott, some who clerked for justice roberts and judge kavanaugh. He said when he was asked to do the dirty work, he would not do the kraftwerk.
▶ 0:40:33Chair Grassley: He said he said you will eventually find someone who was enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never going to be me. That is what this is about. All of us elected by our state have to look in our own conscience and think, is this going to be me? Am I going to go along with this or say something about it? Thank you. >> thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:41:03Chair Grassley: I will be very, very quick.
▶ 0:41:05Chair Grassley: [inaudible] >> I will be very short, simply to say that senator klobuchar has stated very powerfully the reason why we need to provide safeguards. It should be a bipartisan effort, because today it is comey. Tomorrow it could be you.
▶ 0:41:28Chair Grassley: Today it is a republican administration overstepping an overreaching and abusing the prosecutorial discretion that every one of us who has been a prosecutor knows is extraordinarily powerful. I have proposed a framework of legislation that would provide rights to malicious prosecution, just as there are in your state probably.
▶ 0:41:56Chair Grassley: I think in almost every state there is a right of malicious prosecution. Similar safeguards providing individual protections and also grand jury reform. So that there are some safeguards there as well. In this instance, the comey indictment, reports are only 14 out of 23 grand jurors voted for the bill. One of the counts was actually rejected.
▶ 0:42:26Chair Grassley: I'm hopeful it will be bipartisan. I'm preparing legislation and I hope my colleagues will join in this effort. I want to be collegial but the abuses described by senator klobuchar are deeply troubling. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:42:42Chair Grassley: Now we will vote on reporting the domination of jennifer mascott. The clerk will call the role. >> [calling roll]
▶ 0:43:38Chair Grassley: The nomination will be fave -- reported. Now we go to the nomination of edmund lacour. The clerk will call the role. This is for the northern district. >> [calling roll]
▶ 0:44:36Chair Grassley: The nomination will be favorably reported. Now we go to bill lewis, alabama. The clerk will call the role. >> [calling roll]
▶ 0:45:49Chair Grassley: Favorably reported to the floor. Senator durbin, I forgot to call a new. You wanted to put something in the record as I recall.
▶ 0:46:00Sen. Durbin: Yes. I asked permission to put the statements in the record for the nominees as they were called.
▶ 0:46:07Chair Grassley: I'm sorry. Now the clerk will call the role l for harold mooty. >> [calling roll]
▶ 0:46:37Chair Grassley: This is mooty. >> [calling roll]
▶ 0:47:08Chair Grassley: The nomination of mooty will be favorably reported. Now david courcelle, eastern district of louisiana. The clerk will call the roll. >> [calling roll]
▶ 0:48:12Chair Grassley: Chairman grassley. Aye. [applause] -- [laughter]
▶ 0:48:20Chair Grassley: Courcelle will be favorably reported. Meeting adjourned. >> I think it is over.